Thrown

While the Energy Information Administration (EIA), among others, has thrown in some last minute challenges to the efficacy of government support for an Alaska gas pipeline, industrial consumers Wednesday charged that the energy bill being constructed in Congress completely misses the point of how to serve the nation’s need for natural gas.

With a few flat to barely higher points thrown into the mix, most of the cash market was mildly softer Thursday. A majority of declines were capped at a little more than a nickel, although falls of about 12-15 cents were recorded at scattered points such as Texas Eastern M-3, San Juan-Blanco and the PG&E citygate.

Dynegy Inc. was thrown a major financial lifeline late Friday when it closed on the sale of Northern Natural Gas. Co to Berkshire Hathaway’s MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. Just days earlier, it had told the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that bankruptcy could be in its future if the sale of natural gas pipeline was either delayed or blocked.

CMS Energy Corp. has thrown out its speculative energy trading business and with it, cut 50 energy traders, about 25% of the workforce, in a plan designed to clean the balance sheet and improve cash flow. The Dearborn, MI-based company also revised its earnings outlook for 2002, and is selling more assets as it continues a “back-to-basics” program centered around its regulated assets in North America.

Altra has thrown in the towel in the electronic natural gas trading arena. Last winter’s high gas prices, competition from IntercontinentalExchange (ICE), TradeSpark and other electronic trading systems, and skyrocketing credit insurance costs since Enron’s downfall will force the company to shut down its electronic natural gas trading system at the end of this month, said Altra President Dixie Barrett Paden.

Altra has finally thrown in the towel in the electronic natural gas trading arena. Overwhelming competition over the past few years from a number of different systems, some of which also have been forced out of the business, pressured Altra to announce it will shut down the Altrade system on March 31. All natural gas trades and transactions in the system will continue as scheduled until that date, the company told customers in a letter last week.

About 104 square miles of virgin natural gas hunting grounds arebeing thrown open within reach of potential routes for the proposedAlaska pipeline by the Yukon Territory’s second sale in two years.Companies are being given until March 14 to bid on the parcel,which borders on two areas that Anderson Exploration Ltd. scoopedup in the first sale, which was in turn the first one held by theYukon in two decades.

About 104 square miles of virgin natural gas hunting grounds arebeing thrown open within reach of potential routes for the proposedAlaska pipeline by the Yukon Territory’s second sale in two years.Companies are being given until March 14 to bid on the parcel,which borders on two areas that Anderson Exploration Ltd. scoopedup in the first sale, which was in turn the first one held by theYukon in two decades.

Merchant power plant developers attempting to get a foot in thedoor in Florida were thrown out again by the state Supreme Court.The court rejected Duke Energy’s motion for rehearing of a decisionhanded down this spring that said the state’s public servicecommission had no authority to approve a 514 MW merchant plant Dukeplanned to build in New Smyrna Beach.